Via Shutterwi, who is out fishing the big lake this p.m. with some of my equipment. I, as y'all know, am still boycotting ice fishing since I do not have a snow machine to get me out & back. Anyway, he turned me on to this piece on the decline of the newspaper. It's a good read & hits, I think, many of the problems with the business. I love my computer & read a lot of papers on-line each day. I buy the local fish wrapper just about every day & buy the nearest big city's Sunday paper. I'm not sure that the money I spend on those local papers is worth it, but I'll continue doing it because I believe their existence means something & someday maybe, who knows baby they'll be worthwhile again.
-The biggest problem, of course, had nothing to do with the newsrooms. It was the collapse of an unsustainable business model. Simply put, the model involved sending miniskirted saleswomen out to sell ads at confiscatory rates to lecherous old car dealers and appliance-store owners. Protecting these profits, whether from national, local or classified ads, became the central focus of newspaper bosses. These areas were the most vulnerable to new competitors. But the condition of the industry by the 1990s – risk averse, promising unrealistic margins, losing its best talent, ignoring ideas outside its preconceived notions – left it unable to meet these threats.
1 comment:
It was a beautiful day out on the ice except for the lack of any fish.
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